Somali piracy is making an unwelcome return, with two ships hijacked in four days and at least six now held, Somali officials say. The latest target: the SIBU 1, an Eritrean-flagged oil tanker believed to be part of Iran's covert "shadow fleet," seized on Thursday about 130 miles off of Yemen and forced toward Somali waters by seven armed individuals, per the New York Times. The fate of the vessel's 20-person crew is unclear. Earlier in the week, pirates grabbed the Cameroon-flagged cargo ship Lutuf, which was carrying weapons from Turkey to Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
An airstrike later hit a suspected pirate boat linked to that hijacking, killing at least four and wounding two, a Somali official tells the AP. Per the Times, more than 17 piracy-related incidents have been logged in Somali waters and the Gulf of Aden in the first five months of 2026, including at least three commercial ships and five dhow vessels, according to the Center for Maritime Security.
Analysts point to a mix of factors, including reduced international patrols, pressure on local fishermen from foreign trawlers, and regional turmoil that has already turned the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz into conflict zones. Some experts and local officials suspect that Somali pirates are again aligning with Yemen's Houthi rebels. At any rate, the development adds new pressures in the region.
"We're now looking at multiple vectors that are increasing pricing for maritime companies, forcing companies to de-risk entirely, and posing a huge threat to the global economy," Brett Erickson of the Obsidian Risk Advisors consultancy tells Politico. "This is obviously a very, very lucrative business for [the pirates], and right now they have a far lower risk of American reaction to it because so many resources are tied up in the Middle East in general. They're profiteers, and this is an opportunity to profit."
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